The office

Back in the office.  I’m sure it seems as if we do nothing but travel, but I assure that we have been sitting in the office for the past 3 weeks, working.  However, you must think of the word “working” in the LOOSEST of terms.  You know the phrase, “So little time, so much to do.”  Reverse that and you have our office situation.  My motto for the past 3 weeks has been, “So little to do, so much time.”  Writing my lesson plan and going over every possible material I may need for our next program took maybe a of couple hours.  I drug that out for an entire day simply because I had the time, but beyond that, I have spent my days reading, watching movies, writing our blog, filing our taxes, catching up on emails, writing letters, planning weekend trips to Seoul and just general web browsing.  The basic program begins on March 21^st and it cannot come soon enough.  We’ll have 5^th graders for short 3 day/2 night programs until the end of May and we’re looking forward to a change in schedule. 

A little recap of our time since our four-country vacation:  There was a holiday on March 1^st, so we went into Cheonan with some friends, a town about 2 hours from our school.  We roamed the streets, had some Korean style fried chicken for dinner and washed it down with a pint of Baskin Robbin’s ice cream J

The next day, on our weekly Homeplus grocery shopping trip, we bought a blue Betta fish.  We named him Park Ji-Sung.  I was jealous of Jenn and Joe’s newest addition to their family, a French bulldog named Louie so I wanted a pet too.  On a sad note, by the looks of him this morning, I’m not sure we’ll have him much longer!

Last week, one of the ladies in the kitchen taught Daphne and I how to make bulgogi, a traditional Korean meal with veggies, soy sauce, other spices and really thinly sliced beef.  It was a really interesting experience watching how a Korean kitchen works.  First of all, any unneeded water was poured on the floor instead of in the sink, so all the workers wore rain boots.  Secondly, all measuring was done in one small paper cup.  Full meant one cup and a little at the bottom meant a few tablespoons.  Oh and the craziest thing:  they’d cook and taste with the same spoon the whole time.  Koreans have this strange non-fear of germs.  They’re convinced that because they eat kimchi, fermented cabbage, they can share spoons and cups with everyone else and be safe.  I for one do not understand this philosophy and I am unwilling to test it out.  Let’s just say that kimchi is NOT my thing.  While we were waiting for the bulgogi to finish cooking, some kitchen lady shoved a veggie and squid pancake in my mouth and it was surprisingly pretty good!  Apparently it’s a sign of friendship if someone feeds you with their bare hand.  I guess I made a new friend that day J

There are two new developments in our lives here in Korea.  We have begun to make Amish Friendship bread and we are in our second week of P90X (the intense 90 day workout).  You may find that these two things clash a bit, and I won’t disagree with you on that point, but I will admit that I work out so that I can enjoy such delicacies as friendship bread and chocolate.  Every muscle in our body aches from the wide variety of workouts P90X has subjected us to, but it’s a nice way to wake us up in the morning.  We’ll keep you posted on our progress! 

Last weekend was spent in Seoul.  We saw Cookin’ NANTA, a traveling Korean show that is a mix between Stomp and Blue Man Group.  A group of ‘chefs’ did a comical show that incorporated drumming beats with knives on butcher blocks and spoons on large plastic containers.  We stayed at a jjimjilbang on Friday night and spent the day exploring around Itaewon, Namdaemun Market, and Insadong.  We got our pictures taken with some Korean cheerleaders and their “Smile and you’ll be happy” signs and we met a really talented finger print painter named GuGu Kim.  It was the first day that truly felt like spring in Korea so we took advantage of it and threw off our jackets for the day!  When hunger struck, I was quite impressed with Luke’s stellar navigation skills as he weaved us through back roads to find Korea’s version of Chipotle/Moe’s: Tomatillo.  We left around dinner time to head back home and went to bed early. 

On Sunday, I accompanied my friend Daphne to my first and probably only Korean wedding.  We were greeted by the receptionist who gave us buffet tickets.  We scooted around ladies in hanbuk (traditional Korean clothing) as we picked out salads, sushi, meats, fruit and some strange desserts.  After, we found seats in the wedding hall and waited for the bride and groom.  Here’s how the ceremony went down:

·       The mothers walked solemnly to the front wearing hanbuk dresses and lit candles at the altar after a few bows. 

·       The bride walked down the runway (yes there was a runway!) with her father under some swords with her father. 

·       People stood in the back of the room talking throughout the whole ceremony.

·       The groom’s sister’s boyfriend serenaded the couple and they cried.

·       The couple bowed low to each set of parents.

·       The groom danced for the bride after a strange cheek kissing game. 

·       Family pictures

·       The bride and groom changed into traditional Hanbuk wedding garb, most of the guests left after the first ceremony.

·       The bride and groom served alcohol to special guests two at a time and bowed low.  These people had to give money to the happy couple and this ceremony would apparently pay for the entire honeymoon!

It was all very exciting and I went home exhausted from the weekend festivities to hang out with my hubby for the night.    

We’re still on a high from the package that arrived in the mail from Tennessee and we found a market in the nearest town that sells fresh strawberries, so all in all, we’re doing really well.  A few of you have asked for our address so we thought we’d make it public.  We were happy to discover that sending mail back and forth is quite cheap!

Luke & Rachel Roe

536-43 Nongdari-ro

Munbaek-myeon

Jincheon-gun

Chungcheongbuk-do

Republic of Korea

365-863

We miss you all and hope that everyone is doing well.  We love you!

Luke & Rachel

Kuala Lumpur

It has been 12 years but I remember it just like it was yesterday. It was a normal Friday night except that my dad and sisters were not home. My mom and I decided that it was a perfect time for dinner and a movie. The food of choice: cheap Chinese and the movie: Entrapment. I was captivated by this movie from the second it started and in the 12 years that have passed I have rewatched Entrapment countless times. I have always had a determined personality. It is something that I have grown to embrace. When I saw the Petronas Towers in the movie I was determined that I would one day see them.  Isn’t it funny how half of my life, to this point, passed and I suddenly found myself living in South Korea. When vacation time showed u p on the calendar the first thing I did was search for flights to Kuala Lumpur. Rachel lovingly agreed to blindly follow me to this bustling city to fulfill this goal of mine.

Day 1

After 10 days of energy draining travel we landed in Kuala Lumpur. It was the middle of the day, the sun was shining and my eyes began to scan the horizon. It is hard to put into words the feelings that I was having at this moment. They ranged from sheer exhaustion from our travels, disgust at the BO seeping from every pore of the man in front of me, shame that I had traveled this far just to look at a building, and eagerness to get a glimpse of such a beautiful set of twin towers. Sitting on the hot, bumpy bus with my eyes glued to the horizon I finally saw them! Towering above the landscape these silver bullets dwarfed everything in sight and I couldn’t help but smile. For the next hour I continued to giggle, fight passing out from BO and stare at the towers as we slowly crept closer to them. We arrived almost 2 hours later at our hotel in Bukit Bintang, a small part of Kuala Lumpur. Rachel humored me as we threw our bags into the room and took off on a mission. From our hotel we had a direct skywalk to the mall that goes under ground and resurfaces inside the towers. Rachel and I spent a long amount of time that day staring. We sat by the fountains and just looked at the towers. The rest of day 1 is a blur to me. In my head I was really convinced that I could leave Malaysia and be satisfied. Little did I know it would be a country with some really unique things to offer.

Day 2

5:30 am is early no matter where you are in the world. Our hotel receptionist told us that if we wanted to go into the towers on a tour we needed to be waiting in line at 6, so we trusted him and got up before the sun. After 3 hours sitting in a line in the basement of one of the towers we were finally given tickets and were able to start the tour. Being the first tour of the day we were able to enter each part of the tower before they became congested with tourists. Our tour was not terribly long but consisted of a short amount of time taking in the view from the 46^th floor sky bridge and then continuing to the top floor, 86^th, to tower about the city and see everything surrounding it. After our tour we decided that we had earned the right to nap so we went back to our hotel for a few hours and caught up on sleep. After a very refreshing nap, Rachel and I decided that since the weather was uncertain we would spent the afternoon at the aquarium.  I have been to many aquariums and know a far amount about fish and coral but I have never seen an aquarium like this one. They have the world’s longest underwater aquarium tunnel and one of the most impressive fish feeding shows I have ever witnessed. We had front row seats to the feeding of giant Rays, 8 foot sharks, sea turtles, and hundreds of other beautiful fish. We then raced to the freshwater exhibit to watch the piranhas devour some dead tilapia. After indulging our nerdy fishy sides we had to rush to the hotel for our dinner date. One of Rachel’s good friends, Ellie, is living and working in Kuala Lumpur. Ellie and Rachel played softball together for many years and have been chasing each other around the globe. After college Ellie moved to Nashville but our visits never worked out to where we could see Ellie. We were escorted by Ellie to a great Vietnamese restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. The rain had stopped for the day and the night air was very fresh and cool. We were able to enjoy our food on an outside patio where we exchanged stories and caught up on one another’s lives. Time seemed to fly over dinner and suddenly we were saying our goodbyes to Ellie. Being in a predominately hindu part of town Rachel decided to have some Henna done. Half way through the process we ran into some issues with the police but we were able to sort it out and her hand was successfully henna-fied.

Day 3

We only had two things on our agenda for day 3 so we slept in a little and had some breakfast by our hotel. We then boarded the train for the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. This park is the largest open air aviary in the world. My visit was authenticated the second I opened the doors, a very angry, blue parrot decided to disrespect the small amount of hair that I have left on my head and went in for some prime nest building material. I almost hit the deck in fear and then proceeded to snap pictures of this phenomenal creature. For several hours Rachel and I wandered around looking at peacocks, feeding parrots and parakeets and being blown away by the diversity. I won’t bore anyone with all of the detailed pictures we took but some of them can be found on our facebook pages.  After an overly priced hamburger at the Bird Park Kafe, yes with a “K” we skillfully negotiated a taxi to take us to the Batu Caves. At the Batu caves, a hindi temple has been integrated into the caverns which are littered along the mountains slope. At the foot of the caves, and rising to what seems to be taller than the mountain, is the world’s largest statue of Murugan. It would seem that on our 2 weeks of travels we found a lot of sites whose builders had size complexes, but that is an entirely different subject. We were disappointed to find the Batu caves in poor shape, there was trash littering the steps, a stench of urine in the air, and the most aggressive monkeys I have seen. Although we were upset with the state of this temple we decide to push on and see what was waiting at the top. 271 steps later our question was answered: more trash, monkey and pee. I would not count it as a total loss though because while on our trek to the top we watched a monkey swipe someone’s Fanta and proceed to pour it out for himself to drink off the ground. No sooner had we stopped laughing at monkey and descending the stairs from hell did the torrential rains of SE Asia roll in. We took cover in a train and then made our way back to our hotel. We decided that we should spoil ourselves, as if this entire experience isn’t being spoiled enough, so for dinner we went to Chilis. I had a quesadilla explosion salad and almost cried it was so good. Our table was over-looking the fountains at the base of the towers which was very neat to watch. We then rolled out of Chilis and went to a movie. I have seen movies in a lot of places around the world but I have never once watched a movie with such an active crowd. The entire movie the Malaysians were uncontrollably laughing out loud which really added to our experience. After Chilis and a movie we had filled our Western culture quotient for the month so we took a casual walk back to the hotel and began to prepare for our journey back home.

We have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams. After only 3 months in Korea our marriage has grown stronger, we have realized childhood dreams, and have been pushed to better ourselves. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about and miss friends and family but the opportunities that have been given to us continue to put wind under our wings and keep us pushing forward. 


For more pictures of Kuala Lumpur follow this link

"You need tuk-tuk??"

Cambodia.

Day 1:

We flew into Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Saturday, February 18^th.  A friend of a friend’s mom (who is a missionary in Cambodia) picked us up from the airport, and it was really wonderful not having to worry about finding transportation in such a big city.  She dropped me off at our hotel and I spent the evening sleeping in the room, still really sick from food poisoning in Thailand.  She took Luke on a quick tour of Phnom Penh and drove past “Happy Pizza”, a restaurant that apparently serves pizza with weed as a topping??  Diners can even request “extra happy” if they so desire!   Needless to say, they went elsewhere for dinner J

Day 2 in Cambodia:

7 ½ hours of bus driving from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap gives a person ample time to observe.  I learned a few things driving across Cambodia:

·      *Many people support the Cambodian People’s Party

·      *Drivers love their vehicle horns

·      *There are 4 major modes of transportation in the country:

o   Lexus

o   Toyota

o   Motorcycle

o   Tuk-tuk:  This is a motorcycle with a small covered trailer/carriage attached behind and they are MUCH more widely used than taxis

·      *When driving, there are no rules EXCEPT that the biggest vehicle always wins … and pedestrians are the smallest vehicle of all!

Upon our arrival in Siem Reap, we dropped our bags at the Guest House and hailed a tuk-tuk who dropped us off at Viva, a Mexican restaurant in the little downtown area.  They had great tacos, enchiladas and fresh fruit smoothies and it was nice to eat something familiar.   A trip to a night market was cut short because of my misbehaving stomach, but we vowed to explore the city more when I was feeling better. 

Day 3:

We spent the day temple exploring.  Tom, our hired tuk-tuk driver for the day brought us first to Angkor Wat, the most well-known temple in Cambodia.  The detail and precision with which people used to construct and hand carve each piece was incredible…and the temples are all over 1000 years old!!                                          Next, we toured around the larger complex of Angkor Thom to see Bayon, the large stone Buddha heads, and elephant terrace.  Elephant terrace is an area filled with elephant carvings and statues.  After just a few hours of touring, we were sad to realize that a lot was missing from the temples.  Almost all statues were beheaded, without torsos or gone completely, simply a pair of feet left on a pedestal.  Apparently there is a black market for temple artifacts that is still at large.  Despite this, there were still some incredible carvings to photograph and examine.  It was also fun to tour the temples along with monks from around the world who were doing some exploring of their own.  

Souvenir shopping led to lunch and we decided to head to our last stop of the day, Ta Phrom, the site of Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider movie- we’re excited to watch the movie now to see if we recognize anything!  Trees had grown intermingled with the temple walls and doorways so it’s a very unique looking temple.  A random observation: the temples all smelled very fresh, some even like very fragrant flowers.  I felt much better so it was a good day of walking and exploring. 

We ate pizza for dinner and bought souvenirs at the old and new outdoor markets.  We walked around the small city that reminded us strongly of Latin America and the Cambodian Batmobile tuk-tuk drove us back to our Guest House for the night. 

Day 4:

At 8:00 am, Paul picked us up and pointed his tuk-tuk to Banteay Srei, a temple about an hour outside of Siem Reap.  It’s a sandstone temple that is incredibly well-preserved and the details were truly astonishing.  We could even make out shallow writings on the temple walls.  From there, we moved onto Banteay Samre, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Prean and Prea Khan.  They started to blur together a bit, but all were unique in their own ways.  We must have liked what we saw because we took over 400 temple photos ... We ended back at Angkor Wat where we had hoped to watch the sunset fall behind the temple, but it wasn’t very colorful, so we left, showered up, had some dinner and took one last walk around the small city and its night markets. Cambodians are incredibly persistent sales people and even we couldn’t resist.  We bought some cool things and went on to Malaysia a few pounds heavier with art, t-shirts and a lot of trinkets that I’m sure we’ll regret when we try to pack for home in December, but oh well!  

Thailand

Day 1

Holy smokes Thailand! (Feb 14-18) We arrived last night at the Baiyoke boutique hotel and had a quick meal in the lobby.  We ventured out and had a $5 dollar foot massage…how relaxing! Our feet were so tired after walking all over Singapore!

Day 2

A mere 6 hours of sleep later, we were picked up by a van and we began our long journey to the Damnoensaduak Floating Market.  Car and long boat brought us to the market where we boarded yet another boat that took us inside.  We had a rowing guide behind us who took us past the many floating markets.  

Vendors sold food from small stoves they had on their boats, drinks, and all sorts of souvenirs.  They had long poles with hooks that they would use on the tourist boats.  If you even LOOKED at something, it was enough of a reason for them to start offering you “a good price lady.”  We had to be careful not to get our fingers pinched by passing boats while we navigated ourselves through the market.  We bought some stuff for “a good price lady” if you remember and then we found them being sold for 1/3 of the price in the shops surrounding the floating tourist trap. Oh well, it was an experience J

We loaded back into the van for a stop at the JEATH War Museum and Death Railway Bridge.  We drank a fresh fruit smoothing for 30 baht ($1) and then ate lunch.  

More driving took us to the KANACHANABURI tiger temple.  A big reason why we can to Thailand was because of this temple.  At a summer art fair in Minneapolis, there was a photographer who had a picture of a monk walking beside a tiger.  Luke took one look at the scene and decided that he needed to see that place, and we went!! It was neat to see all the tigers in this large canyon, about 15 full grown tigers in all.  On the other hand, it was a little depressing because they seemed so sad, sleepy and almost drugged.  The temple guide was insistent that no drugs are used, but we’re not so sure.  The monks, who wore orange robes trained small tigers that were like puppies, wanting to play, bite and run around.  The little ones were fun to see and photograph because they were so active.  We left as the monks were taking the larger cats back to their enclosures for the night.

A quick stop at a small waterfall and then we went off to a floating restaurant for dinner.  It was really yummy, a nice change from Korean food!  Another boat ride took us to our hotel, a floating hotel on the River Kwai and we spent the evening outside chatting with a Dutch couple, a Danish couple and Raquel from Barcelona.  They were all traveling for 4+ weeks around Asia…and we thought 2 weeks was a long vacation!  There were geckos everywhere and it was warm and wonderful to sit by the river.  It was a GREAT day.

Day 3

We left the hotel at 8:00am the next morning after breakfast and visited Erawan Falls National Park.  We spent 3 hours hiking the 7 tiers of the waterfall.  They really made you work for the beautiful view!  Luke almost got attacked by a monkey who freaked out from the sound of the camera flash.  He threw some tourist’s make-up he was munching on and nearly bit Luke’s face off!  Understandably so, we were a little skittish around monkeys from them on, so we tried to avoid them for the rest of our vacation.  However there were so many in Cambodia and Malaysia and they seemed to sense our fear so they followed us around!!

We had lunch again on the floating restaurant: The Pad Thai and Watermelon were delicious!  After, we set off for our 3 ½ hours back to Bangkok.  We had some Indian food for dinner and got a 200 baht ($7) Thai massage which was a little strange.  We were put into a room and told to strip and put on these flowy clothes.  Then these two ladies came in and forcefully stretched us in all sorts of unnatural positions for an entire hour.  Luke lost his voice for a few days after the “massage” and he was convinced they stretched something in his neck that wasn’t supposed to be stretched J

Day 4

On Friday, we visited the Jim Thompson house.  Jim Thompson is a man from the US who fell in love with Thailand and built homes in and around Bangkok.  The country’s silk market was revitalized by his efforts before he disappeared in Malaysia in 1967.   Recently, the country has made his compound of houses into a museum and we got to explore the buildings and see his many pieces of ancient art he had collected.  Luke started to feel sick so we took a cab back to the hotel.  Before we arrived, Luke puked out the window, just missing a lucky motorcyclist with his projectile!  That night, with Luke still not feeling well, we went on a belated Valentine’s Day dinner cruise that we had booked earlier that day.  I ate from the buffet while Luke looked on, still feeling sick from earlier.  We saw the Grand Palace; Wat Arun, the “Temple of the Dawn”; Wat Kanlayanamit; and Bang Palace Khunprom, which were all lit up and very grandiose to see at night.  It was nice we saw them at all because I got sick that night and we were not able to explore the city the next day like we had planned.  All in all, we had a great time and we did some very unique things while in Thailand.  

If you would like to see all of our photos check out Luke's Facebook page or follow this link Thai Photos

Singapore: The garden city

After several months of planning our “spring break” trip Rachel and I finally began the trek to Singapore. With only our small backpacks, limited funds, and empty memory cards for our camera we loaded a bus in Cheongju and headed off to Seoul. Like most bus trips in South Korea it took longer than it should and the heater was on full blast the entire 4+ hours.

Day 1

After a night in a rather simple hotel by the airport we departed at 8am and boarded the AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur. Seoul to Kuala Lumpur is a staggeringly long flight at over 7 hours long. Normally on a flight of this length you would receive drinks, food and most likely several movies. Well we chose the most budget conscious airliner in all of SE Asia so we spent 7 hours packed like cattle into tiny seats, had to pay for a small glass of water and were not even offered any entertainment options. With sore knees and backs we landed in Kuala Lumpur and began our 5 hour layover. We were not aware that AirAsia has there own airport in Kuala Lumpur and it has just as many frills as the airplanes. 16 gates, 1 noodle stand and a duty free store the size of Russia. We spent the majority of our time laughing at the other tourists roaming the airport and eating Uncle D’s noodles. The 45 minute flight to Singapore passed without issue and we had finally touched down after 12+ hours in Singapore.Our first night in Singapore was rather uneventful. We loaded up in an airport shuttle and were taken to our hotel where we quickly crashed. 

Day 2

Early the next morning we went to a great pancake restaurant where we stuffed our faces and enjoyed catching up with our friends Andrew and Daphne. With full stomachs and smiles on our faces we set off to explore “the cleanest city in the world”. Singapore is a city that is supported by fines and severe punishment. As a result is has emerged as the most beautiful, modern, and clean city in the world. We started our day off with a walk across this pristine country…ok not quite all the way but close to half. On our journey we stumbled upon colonial looking churches and government buildings, shopping and restaurants quietly tucked along river canals and some of the best looking street food my eyes have seen. We shopped, took pictures and walked until late in the afternoon at which point Rachel and I split ways with Andrew and Daphne. We headed off to go on a DuckTour. 

Singapore’s DuckTour was a really great experience. We were able to see the skyline from the water and learn about the history of most buildings from the canals as well as driving through the heart of the city. We captured some great photos and pin-pointed locations that we would like to walk to after our tour was up. Our first stop, post tour, was the double helix bridge. Singapore has a bridge that was designed to mimic the DNA strand and is a really unique architectural feat. We then sat and relaxed under a lotus flower shaped museum and watched the sunset. 

After a beautiful sunset we headed to the Singapore Flyer which is the worlds largest ferris wheel and stands at 541 feet tall. We purchased tickets for later in the night an then headed to a hawker stand are for dinner. The hawker stands are mini-restaurants that serve a variety of different foods. We once again stuffed our faces and headed back to take a 37 minute ride around the flyer. The view from 42 stories high was breath-taking and terrifying all at the same time. We got our feet back onto solid ground and walked with Andrew and Daphne for at least 2 miles through Singapore back towards our hotel for the evening.

Day 3

After walking around for 14 hours on our first day in Singapore we were rather tired the morning of day 2. We took our time waking up and getting around and eventually headed for the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Since Rachel and I love gardens and plants it was a perfect way to spend the day. We lazily wandered through massive gardens. I think a few choice pictures will do much more justice than my words ever could.

After taking several hundred pictures of flowers we hopped back on the subway to do some souvenir shopping and eating in Chinatown. Singapore’s Chinatown is much like Chinatowns worldwide. They had an impressive selection of knock off items and trinkets that the average person will never use but “must have”. We carefully selected gaudy things that family and friends will certainly love and decided it was time to sit down for a break. We found ourselves relaxing in a food stall sitting next to the Singaporean ghetto version of Wayne Newton. It provided us a lot of entertainment to watch him polish his gold glasses and make sure his overly waxed hairdo stayed in place. After two long days of walking and shopping in the sun we decided to head to our hotel for the night. We had to change from our cozy hotel in Chinatown to one closer to the airport for our last night. By the time our subway got to the exit of our next hotel the sun was setting. Apparently it is a lie that Singapore is the most beautiful city in the world because we stepped off the subway into the dirtiest, smelliest red light district I have ever seen. Not that I have an impressive repertoire with those parts of town…Anyways, Rachel and I quickly walked 15 blocks of horror through the wonderful part streets of Singapore before finding ourselves at our hotel. We were so excited to get inside and relax. But then we got inside. The loud bass from the disco club below was quickly put into the back of our minds when the smell of musty libraries hit our noses. Apparently our budget hotel was offsetting costs by doing mold growing science experiments on the walls. Needless to say, we just closed our eyes and tried to fall asleep quickly until morning time.

Day 4

A night in funky town and we were up and out of there early in the morning. We got to the airport early, checked out the butterfly garden (yes! There is a butterfly garden in the airport), ate baguette pizzas, and prepared ourselves for the craziness that Bangkok was about to offer us.







If you would like to see more pictures from our trip visit Luke's Facebook page or follow this link Garden City